Flora of New Zealand Series

Holotype: New Zealand. South Island, Southland, Longwood State Forest, 19 km NNW of Riverton, along Pourakino River, N of Pourakino Camping Ground, 46º11's, 167º55'E, c. 150 m, on decorticated stump in mature, cold temperate Nothofagus menziesii forest, 16.i.1981, L. Tibell 10428 – UPS . Isotypes in BC, BM, CANL, CHR, COLO, DUKE, H, HMAS, LD, LE, LWU, M, MEL, MICH, MIN, NICH, O, POZ, S, TNS, UPS, US, W, Herb. K. Kalb, Herb. A Vězda.

Description : On lignum, parasitic or parasymbiontic on lichen thalli or on free-living algae. Apothecia 0.8–1.4 mm tall, black with matt capitulum and shining ±flexuose stalk. Capitulum obconical, 0.18–0.28 mm diam. Epithecium reddish brown. Hypothecium greenish brown, 100–110 μm thick. Exciple well-developed, formed as a continuation of outer part of stalk, of parallel, conglutinated hyphae, reddish brown and 12–24 μm thick. Stalk thin, dark-brown with a reddish or greenish cast, 0.04–0.06 mm diam., of periclinally arranged hyphae, 2 μm diam. Exciple, hypothecium and stalk yellowish in K (dissolving). Asci 42–49 × 2.8–3.3 μm., apex thickened, penetrated by a rather wide canal, 1 μm wide. Ascospores uniseriate or periclinally arranged or slightly oblique in ascus, ellipsoidal, medium-brown, with longitudinal wrinkles, 1-septate, 7.2–10 × 2.2–2.8 μm, septum thin.

N: Northland (Omahuta State Forest) to Wellington (Tararua Ra.). S: Nelson (Abel Tasman National Park, Lake Rotoroa, Lake Rotoiti, Tasman Mts), Southland (Longwood Ra.). On lignum of Agathis australis, Nothofagus fusca and N. menziesii, 150–880 m. Formerly thought to be a New Zealand endemic, but recently reported from China (Titov 2000: 561) and Tasmania (McCarthy 2003c, 2006).

?Cosmopolitan

Exsiccati : Tibell (1989: No. 160).

Illustration : Tibell (1987: 137, fig. 100).

Chaenothecopsis nigropedata is characterised by: its thin and flexuous stalk, the compact nature of the stalk, the well-developed exciple and the rather large and wrinkled spores.